Jim Davis of San Rafael embodies the mindset of the 24 Hours of LeMons experience; itching to go fast, willing to get goofy and crafty enough to go all Frankenstein on his cars. He'll field two patchwork BMWs at Sonoma Raceway this weekend when LeMons takes racing to its most ludicrous permutation.

Your ears will tell you it's real racing over the 151/2 hours of track time for 180-plus cars wedged onto the track Saturday and Sunday. But your eyes will tell you that silly is just as important as speed. You might see a Pope in a Dodge Neon Popemobile slide by. A Honda might be sporting two Enterprise warp drive engines sprouting out the back. Peculiar protrusions abound.

It's racing taking itself far from seriously. Many cars and drivers clearly wouldn't be capable of victory anyway since, as Davis said, "The only requirement for driving skill is to have a driver's license and a pulse."

Each car has a theme, and that carries through to the drivers meetings where teams dress to accentuate the concept. While Davis will be driving the Mr. Donut entry, a '94 BMW 325is with an M3 engine, his other entry has undergone a LeMons twist.

Davis' '95 BMW M3 was painted orange last year. It's important to execute adequate presentation at LeMons because if you don't...

"The race organizers were not sufficiently impressed with our theme until we promised to wear women's lingerie on the outside of our driving suits, and wigs on our helmets," Davis said of a fateful event from long ago. "My (wife) Drusie said that she was laughing so hard she could barely walk buying XXL leopard print negligees at Target for us."

The former motorcycle racer, an amateur in AFM and a pro locally in AMA, has created a bushel of LeMons cars. The chassis count is five so far not counting those cannibalized for engines, transmissions and body parts. After initially co-driving the cars of others, Davis's first odyssey as an owner morphed into Frankenstein mode quickly.

"I started in 2009 at Thunderhill with my friends Jason Schlesinger and Scott Birdsall, with a $100 1988 Volvo 740," Davis said. "My close friend Jason came up with the name Rubber Chicken Piccata: chicken piccata is made with chicken, lemons and capers. What a perfect team name for us!"

But after its first five hours of racing, the Volvo engine erupted. So for the next round Davis wedged in a Chevy V8 from a pickup. While the newly transformed Volvrolet was a beast, it presented new challenges. Overheated brakes in its second race led to a premature ending in Sonoma's Turn 11 wall.

They say the third time is the charm, but driving at Thunderhill Raceway Park near Willows it clearly wasn't.

"On the back stretch from Turn 9 there was a big backfire, and a plume of smoke started issuing from the hood scoop (which was adorned with rubber chickens). Exiting the Turns 12 there was another backfire, and the plume of smoke became a plume of FIRE!" Davis recalled. "I assure you, driving a car that has flames billowing out of the hood is an alarming experience."

Yet they weren't ready to throw in the greasy towel.

"We spent a few hours getting some parts — new carb, fuel line and filter, distributor, spark plug wires — and had the car running that evening to race again Sunday," Davis said. "The rubber chickens on the hood got well singed, and henceforth the team has been BBQ Rubber Chicken Piccata."

After another couple of years of dutiful service, Volvrolet Mk I met a bitter end when Davis had to leave the track to avoid a spinning car and collected a concrete barrier. He was able to salvage the engine and with it create Volvrolet Mk II from a '94 Volvo 940 which like a phoenix soared to new heights, finishing sixth out of 184 cars at Thunderhill. Sadly, Volvrolet Mk II will languish at home with a broken rear end while Davis' next generation of LeMons wonders takes the stage Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The race continues Sunday from 9:30 to 4:30.

But don't miss the drivers meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. It will be better than Halloween in the Castro.

Joining Davis in Mr. Donut will be Scott Fisher and Hank Watts. Team Julius Seizure is Jason Tanihara, Ethan Alexander and Dani Dumitrascuta.

"I really like endurance racing. I sprint raced motorcycles for a while, but I always felt that endurance racing is more to my taste," he said. "I like getting in the groove and really staying out there a long time. It might be because I'm really stubborn, but I find it kind of Zen, driving at 9/10th for 2 1/2 hours at a stretch."

Finding Zen while passing 20 cars a lap. Now that's a Master.

Pit bits

• Kevin Buckler's TRG-Aston Martin Racing squad enjoyed early dominance at the 12 Hours of Sebring Saturday as the No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 went from fourth on the grid to the lead in the GT Daytona class in the opening minutes. But a nudge later brought the car in for radiator repair and they lost laps they could never regain, finishing 19th in class. The Novato team owner's No. 009 sister car suffered brake issues in the third hour and soldiered on to 16th.